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Then the son of Peleus set forth a mass of rough-cast iron, which of old the mighty strength of Eëtion was wont to hurl; but him had swift-footed goodly Achilles slain, and bare this away on his ships with his other possessions.
[830]
And he stood up, and spake among the Argives, saying :“Up now, ye that will make essay likewise in this contest. Though his rich fields lie very far remote, the winner hereof will have it five revolving years to serve his need; for not through lack of iron will his shepherd or ploughman
[835]
fare to the city; nay, this will supply them.”
So spake he, and thereat arose Polypoetes, staunch in fight, and the mighty strength of godlike Leonteus, and Aias, son of Telamon, and goodly Epeius. Then they took their places in order, and goodly Epeius grasped the mass,
[840]
and whirled and flung it; and all the Achaeans laughed aloud thereat. Then in turn Leonteus, scion of Ares, made a cast; and thirdly great Telamonian Aias hurled it from his strong hand, and sent it past the marks of all. But when Polypoetes, staunch in fight,
[845]
grasped the mass, far as a herdsman flings his crook, and it flieth whirling over the herds of kine, even so far cast he it beyond all the gathering; and the folk shouted aloud. And the comrades of strong Polypoetes rose up and bare to the hollow ships the prize of the king.
[850]
Then for the archers he set forth as a prize dark iron—ten double axes laid he down, and ten single; and he set up the mast of a dark-prowed ship far off in the sands, and with a slender cord made fast thereto by the foot a timorous dove, and bade shoot thereat.
[855]
“Whoso shall hit the timorous dove let him take up all the double axes and bear them home, and whoso shall hit the cord, albeit he miss the bird: lo, his is the worser shot; he shall bear as his prize the single axes.”

Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.

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